The Tournament
The GT is a nice straightforward GvE tournament. Everyone brings two 700pt armies of Good and Evil, playing two games (one of each), rolling off on the odd numbered rounds.
My Armies
I took this as my chance to set a target for painting my Haradrim. And so I would get a load of them done to use alongside my Easterlings and my custom Hasharin from Seven Stones a couple of years back. So my Evil army would be Grand Army of the South, Suladan as a solid leader, Amdur as the disposible beatstick and Hasharin for a solid backup.
For my Good force, I wanted to minimise the packing and unpacking so wanted an all hero army. I took the heroes of Ravenhill to my first ever GT, 8yrs ago! And decided to do so again, even if it leaves me 50pts short, I felt that their bonuses may make up for it.
Good- Assault on Ravenhill
Thorin, King under the Mountain LEADER
Fili, Champion of Erebor
Kili, Champion of Erebor
Dwalin, Champion of Erebor
Legolas w/ Orcrist
Tauriel
Bilbo, Master Burglar
Numbers: 7
Evil- Grand Army of the South
Suladan w/ Armoured Horse
Harad warriors x9 w/ Bow
Harad warriors x9 w/ Spear
Amdur w/ Armoured Horse
Dragon Cult Acolyte x3
Easterling warrior x3 w/ Shield
Easterling warrior x9 w/ Pike/Shield
Hasharin
Harad Raiders x3 w/ Bow/War spear
Numbers: 39
Game 1- Stake A Claim (Vs. Andrew (Fangorn))
Opponent's Heroes: Treebeard, Birchseed, Beechbone, Merry and Pippin
Opponent's Troops: Ents
I lined up my with all the Harad in the centre and left, and the easterlings to the right. My intention, as always against a small force of monsters, was to get an early kill and try to ‘unzip’ the opponent from there.
I called a Heroic March with Suladan to try and get up the board quickly. But then reassessed as we got to my movement, and instead moved half, figuring that with so many bows and poison, I may get lucky and cause a wound or two. They all missed.
A couple of turns later, we engaged and I threw Suladan and the Hasharin into Birchseed. While Amdur charged Beechbone with some warriors.
Suladan’s Heroic Strike spectacularly failed, as he was picked up by the ankle and pummelled into his friends. Killing all but the Hasharin, himself included. Amdur, meanwhile, had a little more luck, beating Beechbone, but failing to cause any wounds.
Over the next few turns, Amdur came out on top each time, but kept failing to wound. Luckily, some warriors wounded one of the ents and put it down to its last one. But around this time, Amdur suffered a similar fate to Suladan.
I had been busy elsewhere, as the easterlings had advanced and taken the right objective. With three left to defend it. The others advanced on Andrew’s rear objective, where Pippin sat upon it. After several turns of approaching, they chased the Hobbit off of it, and eventually speared him as he attacked when an ent came to assist.
Merry had gone to my left objective, where I eventually sent a spare raider to try to lance the surviving hobbit. But as I got close, the single wound ent approached. It was at this time, however, that my archers, sat on my rear objective, fired a cheeky shot that slew the ent! It was short lived as a victory as Birchseed quickly stepped in instead. As the end of the game approached, another handful of my troops defeated a second ent!
By the end of the battle I had 27 Fortification Points to Andrew’s 29. He had beaten me on that, slain my leader, broken me, and held the most objectives at the end to win 12-0!
12-0 L
Game 2- Retrieval (Vs. Gabe (Army of Gundabad))
Opponent's Heroes: Bolg, Gundabad Captain and Troll Catapult
Opponent's Troops: Gundabad Trolls
With so few models on the table, this wasn’t going to be a long game, one way or the other. It turned out that Gabe was a fellow BSIME viewer so it was cool to put a face to the name.
I began by calling a March with Thorin and hurrying up the centre towards where Gabe’s troops were standing to defend their objective. Tauriel took the catapult trolls rock to the skull but shrugged it off like a champ…with a fate.
Legolas fired his bow and managed to take a wound off the Captain at the back.
The second turn was similar but without the March, Tauriel took another rock to the head but this time it failed to wound.
Legolas fired again, hitting Bolg’s warg and killing it.
The following turn, we hit combat. Fili, Kili and Bilbo fought one troll, and Thorin, Dwalin and Legolas took the other. Fili and Kili, using a Heroic Strike, managed to beat the troll and caused three wounds between them upon it. Bilbo then stepped up and slew the beast with Sting!
Dwalin and Thorin then fought Bolg, as Legolas, Tauriel, Bilbo, Fili and Kili charged the second troll. I called a Heroic combat and once again, Bilbo landed the killing blow! Fili and Kili charged the Captain as the others rushed towards the Catapult troll. In the combats that followed; Thorin slew Bolg and Kili took down the Captain.
In the final turn, Legolas, Tauriel and Bilbo charged the Catapult troll, with Leggy grabbing the objective as he did so. He used his last two might to cause two wounds with his bow, Tauriel then landed another two wounds and Bilbo managed to slay his third troll of the game!
I had slain his leader, broken him, claimed the objective and killed three heroes for a 14-0 win.
Game 3- To The Death (Vs. Dom (Defenders of Helm's Deep))
Opponent's Heroes: Theoden, Aragorn and Legolas
Opponent's Troops: Rohan Royal Guard, Rohan Warriors and Galadhrim Warriors
I deployed my easterlings to my left, the Harad spears to my right and the archers upon a raised platform to pepper the opponents.
We both ran towards each other and I got the edge in shooting as I shot a couple of archers dead. Then also taking some fate off Legolas. Dom then returned the favour killing a handful of my archers.
The lines met (just under a glued platform so I had to stand them on top for ease), and I threw my easterlings into the wall of elves and Rohirrim. My Harad went to engage the small unit off to my right, with help from the archers, who took out a couple of Rohirrim each turn. In the fighting, I lost a few easterlings but killed off some elves in return.
Amdur then saw an opportunity and charged into some Rohirrim up the far right flank with a raider. Dom reacted to this, by throwing Aragorn in alongside Theoden. The idea being that Aragorn could match the fight value and Herugrim from Theoden could give him the edge.
In the fight phase, I lost a handful of Harad spears to the Rohirrim due to numbers, but the easterlings again managed to whittle down the elves for me. When it came to the big hero fight, we had both called Heroic Strike. Aragorn went up to 9, and Amdur to 10. Amdur then managed to win the fight and laid into Theoden. Managing to slay the King with his final strikes. In the following turn, Amdur charged Aragorn again. Legolas, I should say, had been shooting into combat to try and dismount Amdur, but would either miss or roll catastrophically to wound.
Neither of us called a strike this time, and Amdur won the roll off, before landing many wounds upon the Heir of Isildur. Managing to bring him down too!
Now in a tough spot, through sheer bad luck, Dom threw Legolas into the fight with the Easterlings. My Harad spears collapsed under the weight of the Rohirrim, who then tried to hurry past and flank me, but a lone Harad managed to hold them at the chokepoint for a couple of turns, keeps my easterling rear safe.
In those two turns, Legolas had lost both fights and ended up being speared by the glimmering horde. With all three heroes now slain, Amdur hitting the rear and my archers picking off loose targets, I had the upper hand as time was called. Suladan’s sole contribution to this battle, had been to hide at the back giving banner effect, VPs and not getting wounded.
I had slain Theoden, broken the defenders, got them to 25%, killed three heroes and we each had a banner remaining, giving me a 14-1 win.
Game 4- Lead From The Front (Vs. Alun (Wolves Of Isengard))
Opponent's Heroes: Sharku, Orc Captains and Orc Shaman
Opponent's Troops: Warg Riders and Wild Wargs
This was one of the better matchup and scenario pairings that I could have hoped for. Having several strong heroes of decent tier to hold up to three objectives.
I deployed in front of a field, which had the central objective in a corner. The aim was to get inside the field and use it as a fortification to defend.
The wargs got their pre priority move and rushed up a handful, who shot at me but failed to wound. In the move phase the other wargs all hurried up to push the line against me, and I pushed up towards the entrance to the field.
In the shoot phase, the wargs managed to shoot Legolas and remove a wound, two fate, and a might from him. Legolas fired back, killing a rider.
The turn after, I called a Heroic Move and hurried into the field. Thorin pinned the Captain in the corner, Fili and Kili charged a couple, Legolas charged one and Dwalin blockaded the gateway.
Poor Bilbo, however, got left behind…how themeatic.
The field now became a kill zone, where I had Fili, Kili and Legolas killing any wargs that entered. Not wanting to get caught at time or the end of the game later, as they approached their break point, Tauriel pushed for the left objectives, launching herself with a Heroic Combat (in which she slew all three riders and the warg that passed courage). And landed beside the captain, who promptly shielded her away. The following turn, she faced the captain and two warg riders, got a four high and was ripped to pieces…plan A is out the window…
So the remaining heroes in the field (Bilbo had managed to hop through, using the Ring, killing a couple as he went) tried to hold a wall each and avoid being overrun. Legolas managed to narrowly dodge many bow shots and throwing spears, using his bow to avoid being outfought. Fili and Kili kept up a steady kill count on their two walls, Bilbo threw stones and stabbed the riders with Sting, and Thorin…well he got Orcrist from Legolas and then proceeded to bounce off the Captain for most of the game…when he did finally score a wound that went through fate, he rolled for the bane effect and did a single wound. He did eventually manage to slay the captain, before charging the Shaman over the same wall, and rolling triple 3 for his in the way rolls. Shaman got away unscathed.
Legolas eventually fell as a warg rider knocked him down and nommed him to death. Fili suffered a sudden similar fate. But luckily, Kili and Bilbo held firm, the latter ending the game on five(ish) kills. Dwalin, meanwhile, decided to one man army ‘Rambo’ it. He charged out the field as the game approached its end, called a Heroic Combat with his last might, slaying both the mount and rider. He then rushed the Captain, and didn’t manage to kill, but did steal the left objective!
As the game ended, I had claimed two objectives against lower tiered heroes, Sharku held the last, as he had stayed there, well away from any nasty elves or dwarves. I had broken the wolves and Thorin, as per the army bonus, is counted as a banner, so I had won 9-4.
Game 5- Escort The Wounded (Vs. Jay (Dragons Of The North))
Opponent's Heroes: Dragons and Cave Drake
It’s been several years since I’ve played Jay, and finally I’d have another crack!
Based off a practice game that I’d played, I knew that the best approach would be to just grab two wounded and get up the board ASAP. So Dwalin grabbed one and Tauriel/Legolas grabbed another to get him out of the woodland. Whereupon Legolas dropped and Kili took over. This was so Legolas could start popping off shots at the Dragons.
He began this in style, using two might to take two fate off the lead Dragon (red). And over the following turns taking one away from the Drake too. Jay, meanwhile, took an objective each with the second dragon and drake to save them, then flew the second dragon back, taking the last from the lead dragon and rescuing him too.
I used two of Thorin’s might for Heroic Marches to cover as much ground as I could, weaving through a ruin for cover, and managed to get my two wounded saved. Sadly, Thorin was roasted as I did so.
I then retreated back into the ruin, to avoid the Dragons picking me apart. Tauriel, Dwalin, Fili and Bilbo managed to pin the Cave Drake. After chipping off four wounds, Bilbo charged in, threw a stone and took its second to last wound away, before Dwalin slew the beast. Kili was then eaten by the second Dragon as Legolas fought the lead one, winning but failing to wound.
As my might wore thin, Jay managed to gain the upper hand with patience, and gradually my heroes were killed off; Tauriel, Fili, Dwalin were slain by the second dragon, despite landing a few blows upon it, and Legolas was eventually devoured by the lead one. Bilbo was the lone survivor as he stood alone in the ruins with the Ring on.
Jay had rescued all three wounded to my two, he had slain my leader, broken me and neither of us had any banners. So I had lost 20-10, but given the matchup and quality of the opponent, I was happy to accept that.
Game 6- Command The Battlefield (Vs. Louis (Halls Of Thranduil))
Opponent's Heroes: Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel
Opponent's Troops: Mirkwood Knights, Mirkwood Elf Warriors and Wood Elf Sentinels
Louis was another opponent that I was rematching. I believe that our last battle was at TOS ‘23?
I got the edge early on as I gave priority to Louis so that he’d have to arrive first. He had Thranduil arrive in the South West corner and Tauriel in the middle of the South edge. Legolas failed to arrive.
I then had my Hasharin fail to arrive. Amdur then came onto the Eastern edge behind Thranduil, and Suladan, the South near to Tauriel.
We exchanged bowfire and the elves shot a couple of my archers, who then shot a wound off Thranduil’s elk. Tauriel also managed to snipe out Suladan’s horse. However, one of the acolytes managed to throw a knife and kill the sentinel nearby.
I then went on the very aggressive offensive. Amdur’s unit went for the elven rear and pinned them. Amdur flanked one of the elven glaives and others pinned some of the knights. In the melee, several on either side fell, with me putting a good few holes in the elven lines to exploit next turn.
The Hasharin then arrived behind Amdur’s unit to reinforce it.
In Louis’ turn, Tauriel charged at my archers, grabbing two. The sentinel then sang at another and pulled him in too. Predictably, Tauriel murdered them all. My archers managed to shoot a couple of elven bows dead. But Legolas had arrived behind me and instantly shot three wounds onto Suladan, killing him!
Over the next few turns, Tauriel gradually ground down my archers until none were left.
I had several turns of gaining the priority in a row, and took full advantage. Managing to almost destroy Thranduil’s warband. So Louis made a sensible decision and pulled him and his surviving knights back. I called a combat with Amdur, involving several warriors including acolytes and the Hasharin and gave chase. I then won priority and was just out of range of Thranduil. So I threw several guys into Tauriel’s archers and Thranduil’s knights to try and break them. My Hasharin saw an opportunity and threw a knife, slaying the second sentinel. After all the fights had resolved, I had broken the elves, but wasn’t far off myself.
Over the rest of the game, I tried to wear down the elves in the south west corner, lost 2/3 of my raiders in the north west to courage after breaking. And Louis held firm, using Legolas’ courage and the last sentinel’s music to keep a vital knight in check.
I had captured the north west, Louis had both the north and south east, and had outnumbered me in the south west. We were both broken, he had slain suladan and 25%ed me. I believe that he was only 1/2 off himself. So Louis had claimed the victory, 13-4.
Results
In the end, I had managed to get 3 wins and 3 losses, breaking even nicely. (A bit of a rarity these days!) I had achieved a VPD of +1 and slain two leaders. I ended up 27th out of the 64 players.
I was really happy with that performance, especially as I had the opportunity to potentially get 4/2+. I always really enjoy these WW tournaments and hope we continue to see them well into the future!
Tournaments that I'll attend
EAHC Teams 18th April
Fog of War 4 16th May
Seven Stones 23/24th May
